[TR] Mt St Helens - Monitor Ridge 9/21/2007

[blurpy]

Trip: Mt St Helens - Monitor Ridge

 

Date: 9/21/2007

 

Trip Report:

Went up Thursday evening, camped out at the bivouac. It was cloudy, and I commiserated with some climbers signing out at Jack's while I signed in. They had been in clouds the whole time, and had seen nothing other than the sand at their feet.

 

We built a fire and watched while it began to clear. I was up at 5am under a brilliant Milky Way, and the approaching dawn signaled a perfect day.

 

We left the bivouac at 7.40. I reached the summit at 11.15 and my buddy at around 11.40. The sky was a bit hazy, but there were no clouds. Rainier and Adams were brilliant.

 

There was a significant (we thought) tremor while we were at the edge of the crater. The rockfall got significantly louder and the whole ridge shook for a few seconds, while deep ominous sounds came up out of the crater. We were quite happy when that was over.

 

During the descent we noted the smoke plume from a fire in the gorge. From our perspective it looked like the Mt Hood wilderness had exploded.

 

Here are some photographs. Hardy souls can see the full album here: Mt Saint Helens Trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Boots. Saw plenty of people in sneakers. Usually they were dumping out gravel or massaging sore ankles.

 

Approach Notes:

vehicular.

Edited September 24, 2007 by blurpy

[blurpy]

I neglected to mention that, even though this was no epic and earned us no hardman points, it was super fun.

[fettster]

Nice job, certainly a lot funner if you can actually see something when you crest the rim. Is that some green I see in the crater? I can't believe that wearing tennis shoes would be any fun at all. A nice bonus with the tremor huh? It's quite something to experience how the sound is directed up out of the crater.

Edited October 17, 2007 by fettster